Another beautiful weekend ahead
Thursday, October 3, 2024
Mostly sunny skies and comfortable temperatures approaching seventy-five degrees are over the Steamboat Springs area this Thursday midafternoon. We’ve had nothing but beautiful weather since fall officially arrived almost two weeks ago, and that looks to continue through this weekend and into the following week. Near-record temperatures approaching eighty degrees are expected for Friday ahead of a storm moving through the northern Rockies on Saturday. Expect a breezy or even windy Saturday afternoon thanks to a grazing cool front that will knock temperatures back toward the low seventies.
A ridge of high pressure over the West will be pushed eastward by a storm forecast to pass through Vancouver on Friday. Breezes will increase from the west and southwest ahead of the storm, allowing temperatures to approach the record high of 80 F set in 1943. I suspect we were close to reaching or exceeding temperature records last weekend, but those official data are still awaiting publication.
Though winds will subside overnight, some cloud cover and leftover breezes may be enough to keep our low temperatures five to ten degrees above our average of 29 F. And even though high temperatures will fall back into the low seventies for Saturday and Sunday thanks to breezes out of the west and northwest, which will be strongest on Saturday, that is still almost ten degrees above our average of 65 F.
There is still plenty of lower-elevation color around, so get out and enjoy another warm and sunny weekend. We may see some moisture sneaking under the rebuilding ridge of high pressure over the West around midweek, though the weather forecast models have recently diminished those chances. Otherwise, a more promising storm may be strong enough to displace the high pressure ridge over the West by the following weekend. I’ll have more details on those possibilities in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.
